Saturday, 14 August 2010

This year's cinematic interest in comic book adaptations shows no sign of slowing down with adaptations of Scott Pilgrim vs. the world and Tamara Drewe hitting screens over the next few weeks. To coincide with this, the SciFi London festival team have released the next in their series of podcasts recorded in front of a live audience at this year's Sci-Fi London festival.

In it, Alex Fitch talks to cartoonist Woodrow Phoenix and film maker Howard Webster about the dialogue between comics. film and TV, looking at Woodrow's work adapting his comic Pants Ant for the Cartoon Network and Howard's interactive webcomic The Many Worlds of Jonas Moore. The podcast also features a brief appearance by Marcus Gilbert (Biggles / Army of Darkness) talking about his roles in Howard's comics.

Friday, 13 August 2010

Tom Humberstone is a cartoonist and editor. As the man behind such comics as Art School Scum, My Fellow Americans and the Eagle Award-winning How To Date A Girl In 10 Days, he's had critical plaudits aplenty. In this interview, conducted by Matthew Badham, Tom talks about making comics, his frustrations with art school -- and editing Solipsistic Pop, an anthology of new comics talent.

downthetubes: How did you get involved in the small press/self-publishing?

Tom Humberstone: I started making comics in my second year of art college when I became disillusioned with some of my peers and frustrated with the few seconds of animation I was producing each week despite extremely long hours in the studio. To me, making a comic was a wonderful exercise in instant gratification. Which, as time has gone by and I attempt more ambitious work, seems laughably naive in retrospect.

Regardless, I started photocopying these vicious little character assassinations called Art School Scum on the way into college and plastered them throughout the halls. I loved having complete control of the content from start to finish and not having to compromise at any stage due to finances or time constraints. It felt quite punk. Needing only a pen, some paper, and about 20p for the photocopier.

Every fortnight, I'd cover the college walls with a new edition, targeting a different art school archetype under the alias of Ventedspleen. It was only much later - sometime late in my third year - that I even considered collecting them in a book. It was later still - maybe even a year after graduating - that a friend managed to convince me to take my comics to a comic show and attempt to sell them.

My relationship with comics and the small press continued to be an on/off hobby for a few years until about two years ago when I started to really commit to publishing regular comics and attending more shows.

downthetubes: How do you make your living, from your art or in other ways?

Tom: While I don't tend to lose money on my comics - in fact, more often than not, I make a tiny profit - I can't rely entirely on them to pay rent, bills and all the other necessary monthly expenses. I have a full-time graphic design job and supplement that with storyboard and illustration commissions, which often pay for print-runs and allow me to invest spare cash into my comics in a variety of ways. Currently, everything I manage to save goes into publishing Solipsistic Pop and organising related exhibitions and events.

downthetubes: What's the best/worst thing about the small press?

Tom: I'd say the best thing about it is the very liberating aspect of complete artistic control. I can publish what I like. Be it my own work or the work of other artists I adore in Solipsistic Pop. There's no sales team to convince, no editor, no marketing department in need of an angle or snappy soundbite. Total creative freedom.

There are so many exciting new business models opening up for small publishers too, so it's becoming an increasingly interesting field to be working in right now. Currently, a lot of the publishing industry is up in the air and no one can be totally sure how it will all land so there's a lot of scope to create new paradigms.

On a related note - the gestation period for a lot of books can take an extremely long time, whereas in the small press scene artists can conceive, implement and publish an idea within weeks.

For example, Dan Hancox and I managed to publish the very first book about the 2008 American Presidential election (My Fellow Americans) in May 2008 - before Obama had even secured the Democratic nomination. That's a very addictive advantage of the small press and one that will always keep me coming back.

As far as the worst thing: I suppose it's attempting to do it all. As much as I absolutely adore wearing so many hats (editor, artist, designer, art director, publisher, press officer, distributor, events co-ordinator... etc.), I think it stands to reason that there are some things I'm better at than others.

Attempting to do all of this on your own can mean doing a couple of extremely important aspects of the job poorly. But I can't afford to hire additional help. This is the one thing that could really benefit from being involved with a larger publishing house.

downthetubes: Tell us a little about Solipsistic Pop and what you're trying to achieve with the anthology?

Solipsistic Pop is a biannual anthology of alternative comic artists based in the UK. It was created with the intention of providing a high quality platform for those artists when, currently, there isn't a huge infrastructure in place that supports that sort of work. While North America has Drawn & Quarterly, Fantagraphics, Top Shelf and various other great publishers - we don't really have anything here that's similar.

Things are changing of course. There's Blank Slate and No Brow Press. But I really wanted Solipsistic Pop to exist as a kind of aperture for people to discover brilliant UK talent in a beautiful, boutique publication that wouldn't look amiss next to Mome, RAW or McSweeneys on a bookshelf.

Solipsistic Pop is very much about taking the wonderful things people are doing in the small press here and then publishing it using the best possible printing methods available. Conducting experiments with inks, paper stock and pull-outs. Making the product a gorgeous, tactile artefact that shows the work in the best possible light and demands the attention of everyone with a passing interest in comic art. Doing something that makes the rest of the world sit up and take notice of the brilliant artists we have working in comics in the UK at the moment. And encouraging those artists to produce the best work they are capable of.

downthetubes: How's successful has it been so far? Where next for Solipsistic Pop?

Tom: The response to the first two volumes has been wonderful. We've been getting some great reviews and the related exhibitions and events have had enormously successful turnouts. Momentum is definitely building and I'm just about managing to break even on the whole thing. It's a lot of hard work and a big drain on my time and finances but it's worth it.

I'm extremely proud of Solipsistic Pop and continue to be surprised at what it's achieved already.

A third volume is due in November and I'll also be announcing some events around that time. It's possible Solipsistic Pop will go on hiatus after that while I take stock of what has been a success and where it's possible to improve. The main things I really need to start considering are whether I can publish more than 500 copies of each volume and how I can solve the problem of distribution. But it's early days and I'm very much learning as I go.

downthetubes: You do the 'auto-bio' thing, amongst other things. Do you ever worry about revealing too much about yourself (or even other people)?

Tom: I actually decided to take a break from auto-bio comics after completing How To Date A Girl In 10 Days, only recently returning to it when I undertook the challenge to make a comic a day for 100 days. I simply couldn't see any other way of producing content on a daily basis without going for the illustrated journal approach.

With the 100 Days Comics I've been very careful to only put other people in there when it is light-hearted and jovial - trying my best not to put words in people's mouths and to make it clear to friends that I'm doing it. Everyone has been completely fine with it and often enjoy making occasional cameos now and again. But that has a lot to do with making sure I'm documenting things that they're comfortable with. If there's ever a moment of introspection or darkness, you'll most likely find the comic features me and me alone.

The only time this hasn't been the case was with How To Date A Girl In 10 Days, which was about a relationship that didn't last more than a fortnight. We didn't stay friends and when I decided to make a comic about it (which was much less about the relationship itself and much more about being a directionless twenty-something and learning to get beyond my inability to date), I was careful to change names and hide identities. I didn't have permission to make that comic and so was very careful to make sure that I remained the butt of any jokes.

The comic actually gives you little about the relationship or the girl in question. If I was vague at points - to ensure I didn't share something that the other person wouldn't want shared - I made sure there was a point I was attempting to communicate. Looking back on it now I think I was generally successful, but I probably wouldn't attempt that comic now. I think it's an incredibly delicate line. And too easy to cross.

In terms of sharing too much of myself - that's not something I worry about at all. I'm happy to do that. Writing Everything You Never Wanted To Know About Crohns Disease was a real eye-opener and let me exorcise a lot of demons about having Crohn's. Somehow, writing and drawing about embarrassing moments is quite cathartic and allows me to own them.

Additionally, for every personal moment I choose to share with my readers, there are another twenty that I've chosen not to. So I never worry about giving too much away.

downthetubes: Is the small press a stepping stone for you to get pro' work or an end in itself?

Tom: I'm not entirely sure my work would lend itself well to 'pro' work. But it's not something I'd dismiss - being paid to draw comics is obviously something of a dream. It would have to be the right project though and it certainly hasn't been the plan behind getting involved in the small press.

If anything, it would be nice to get to a point where a slightly larger company helped out with Solipsistic Pop and took care of some of the distribution and marketing side of things but that's certainly something I couldn't envisage happening for some time - and wouldn't want to - I think I enjoy being the over-zealous one-man-band too much.

It would be fantastic if I could make my living out of comics as it would obviously allow me the time to draw more of them. But similarly, if I never make any money from comics, I'll continue to draw them.

Tom: We Are Words + Pictures is a collective of talented artists and writers who are all, in some way or another, involved in comics. Matthew Sheret and Julia Scheele created it and it predominantly focuses on organising comic-related events, taking comics to comedy nights where there is potential crossover appeal or to music festivals like Latitude. The idea being that by taking comics outside of the conventions and traditional places you might find them, you can increase interest in the medium and the small press scene.

I've been helping out with We Are Words + Pictures as much as I can - designing flyers and brochures and helping to run Drop In + Draw workshops. It's a fantastic collective doing exciting things and wonderfully ties in with a lot of what Solipsistic Pop is trying to achieve too. It's no coincidence that Matthew and I co-wrote the comic manifesto that opens Solipsistic Pop 1.

We have a lot of similar feelings about the UK comics scene and I look forward to helping out with We Are Words + Pictures whenever I can.

downthetubes: Tom, thanks very much for your time and the very best of luck with all your projects

Thursday, 12 August 2010

Sequart Research and Literacy Organization's Minutes to Midnight: Twelve Essays on Watchmen is now available for order through comic shops (use Diamond order code AUG101288). The book, edited by Richard Bensam, is currently listed in the books section of August's Previews catalogue (page 344) and is set to hit stores in late October.

• Bringing Light to the World: Watchmen from Hiroshima to Manhattan, by Peter Sanderson

• The End Is Nigh: The Limits of Watchmen, by Geoff Klock

• The Smartest Man in the Morgue: Watchmen and "Twelve Notes on the Mystery Story," by Chad Nevett

• Somebody Has to Save the World: Captain Metropolis and Role Playing Watchmen, by Tim Callahan

• 58 Varieties: Watchmen and Revisionism, Julian Darius

• Some Different Sort of Time: Watchmen as Cinema, by Patrick Meaney

• At Play Amidst the Strangeness and Charm: Watchmen and the Philosophy of Science, by William Ritchie

• The Last Laugh: Understanding Watchmen's Big Joke, by John Loyd

• How the Ghost of You Clings: Watchmen and Music, by Mary Borsellino

• Blotting Out Reality: Questioning Rorschach, by Gene Phillips

• Nothing Ever Ends: Structural Symmetries in Watchmen, by Jon Cormie

Sequart feel no Watchmen fan or comics scholar should go without this critical analysis of the greatest graphic novel of all time. Orders should be placed with your comic shop before the end of August.

Cinebook publish a number of spy or spy-like series including IR$, Lady S and Largo Winch, but the only CIA agent on (or rather in) their books is Alpha. The List was originally published by Le Lombard in 1999 as La Liste, the 4th Alpha album.

Written by Mythic (Jean-Claude Smit-le-Bénédicte) and illustrated by Youri Jigounov, Alpha has now reached 11 French albums (with the title of the 11th no doubt going to be a problem for Cinebook when they reach it) and there is a certain delicious irony that a series about an American CIA spy is actually illustrated by a Russian who was born in Moscow during the Cold War.

On the night of 10 November 1989, on the other side of the Berlin Wall, Colonel Wolfgang Wagemuller of the Stasi, the East German secret police, realises that the old order is about to collapse and returns to his office where he removes computer files containing a list of the names of American businessmen who collaborated with the Communist authorities for profit.

Years later, with a wife and a young daughter and while working at a stuffed toy factory, Wagemuller believes that he has been recognised and contacts the Americans to give him and his family a new life in the US in exchange for the computer list. Alpha and his colleagues are tasked to get Wagemuller and his family to safety in the US while being pursued by a number of other groups who want the same list, including the Israeli Mossad and agents working for a US arms manufacturer named on the list.

There is no great depth to Mythic's plot of The List as it is an unashamed chase story. He takes his characters from the canals of Amsterdam via various car chases through country roads, to the port of Le Harve and then onto a cruise liner bound for New York. The pace never stops until all the various agents are on the cruise ship with suddenly nothing to do other than relax for the duration of the voyage. Of course being trained agents they never really let their guard down which ultimately proves necessary as events on the cruiser liner unfold.

Jigounov's clear artwork stands up to the test of having a very large cast of characters to illustrate while his accuracy on all the numerous vehicles used during the car chases is so impressive that virtually every car in the book is identifiable by its make and model.

Alpha - The List is not the book for you if you are looking for a deep and thoughtful story, but if you are after a fast moving action filled adventure then this is going to be hard to beat.

• There are more details of the English language Alpha books at the Cinebook website.

• There are more details of the French language Alpha books at Le Lombard website.

Wednesday, 11 August 2010

Horror comics for children have had an awkward time of it in the past so full marks to Cinebook being brave enough to translate the Belgian series Mort De Trouille into English for the first time. Written by Virginie Vanholme and illustrated by Mauricet, the Scared To Death series tell the stories of schoolboys Robin and Max and their encounters with the supernatural. Malevolence and Mandrake was originally published in 2003 as Maléfice Et Mandragore, the third in the Franco-Belgian album series which ran for five albums plus a shorter story

Robin and Max's schoolfriend Thomas has gone missing while a new Romanian girl, Emma, has joined their class. Emma appears rather taken with Max which makes Robin's little sister Sophie, who has a crush on Max, follow her home to discover more about her. There she discovers that young Emma is actually an ancient witch called Malevolence who has captured Thomas and now Max to use them to regain her youth and that of her sister Mandrake. Unsurprisingly Robin doesn't believe his sister's story and she sets out to prove it to him.

This is a horror story for the Harry Potter generation even down to Robin wearing a Hogwarts scarf on the front cover - but this is not a bad thing. Vanholme's script is aimed squarely at children and although it does have enough going on to maintain an adult's interest, it is with Mauricet's artwork that the book really shines. He uses a clear and slightly humourous style which suites the script perfectly and his characters are well defined, with his witches in particular being beautifully ugly.

I particularly like his take on the determined Sophie with her pink boots, blond pony tails, Monsters Inc backpack and a sticking plaster on her knee. It is in the details of the artwork that perhaps help it stand out for an adult reader since Mauricet adds so many pop culture references as in-jokes. Here we have a book that includes art references to both Marvel and DC superheroes, to the aforementioned Harry Potter and Monsters Inc, as well as other Pixar films, Star Wars and even Spirou comic, a title that Mauricet himself has worked on. The script does not call for the vast majority of them, but they are there anyway.

Scared To Death - Malevolence and Mandrake is a good choice of a book for the younger members of the family but it is also worth having a read of yourself before you pass it on to them just to enjoy Mauricet's artwork.

• There are more details of the Scared To Death series on the Cinebook website.

• There are more details of the Mort De Trouille series on La Bedetheque website (in French).

• Mauricet's English language website is here and his slightly more adult blog is here in which, while it is in French, he tends to let the artwork speak for itself.

"Writing it out in order like this might make it all seem very organised," he notes, "and it is to a certain extent, but the reality means that it often develops out of order and in bits and pieces here and there."

"No matter what fantasy figures he is illustrating, whether it’s the dazzling science fiction heroes in Dan Dare, The Trigan Empire or The Terminal Man or the homoerotic hunks Rogue, Bike Boy and others from HIM and Meatmen," writes Gravett in his introduction to the interview.

"Oliver Frey brings a distinctive masculinity and sensuous physicality to his comic art. It was never much of a secret to those who recognised his style and were ‘into the Frey’, although it may come as a surprise to some that this renowned mainstream comics illustrator and newsstand magazine innovator is also Britain’s (and Switzerland’s) greatest contemporary gay porn artist and writer, as accomplished and significant as Tom of Finland before him."

Monday, 9 August 2010

After two years of nomadic existence, the Eagle Awards will take up residency at London’s hugely popular MCM Expo at Excel, where the 2010 awards will be announced.

As of 2011 and going forward, the awards will become part of London MCM Expo's May event.

While details are still to be finalised, Eagles administrator Cassandra Conroy announced, “I’m really pleased to have inked the deal with MCM's Paul Miley and Brian Cooney, considering that the London MCM Expo is viewed by fans and industry alike as London's Comic Con the nearest that the UK has to the San Diego ComicCon!"

“It’s been frustrating to have been homeless for the past couple of years and this new arrangement provides the Eagles with long-term stability," she added. "It also links us into a partnership with people who are as enthusiastic as I am to make them the industry’s premier awards."

For his part, MCM Expo's Paul Miley said, “We are very happy to now be the new home to the Eagle Awards which we consider to be a great British institution and an important part of comic fandom recognised the world over. I am looking forward to working with Cassandra and the Eagle's to help take the awards to another level.

“London MCM Expo has a tremendous following from both comic fans and the public as a whole and is supported by many artists and writers which has helped the Comic Village section of the show to grow show on show,” added Miley.

“We are likened to San Diego Comic Con in the US all the time by fans and industry pundits which we admit is a great accolade -- maybe not yet in size but most definitely in stature. So bringing the Eagles to Expo helps to cement our position as London's Comic Con the Eagles are our Eisners.”

The Chimpanzee Complex has been something of a revelation since it began three books ago. Near future, hardcore science fiction with a mature storyline, Cinebook chose to publish the title in the full European size rather than the American size that they use for the majority of their mature titles. This gave the highly detailed artwork the room that it needed and the reactions of both the comics reviewers and the readers to the series seem to have been overwhelmingly positive. Indeed The Chimpanzee Complex even received an Eagle Award nomination for Favourite European Comicbook. Civilisation is the third and final book in the ongoing story and it concludes the story of astronaut Helen Freeman.

Since this is an ongoing story split over three books, you cannot begin anywhere else but with the first book and then read forward. The first book took Freeman and her crew to the Moon while the second book took them to Mars and it ended with the crew entering suspended animation as their ship left the Solar System.

Civilisation begins with Helen waking up to discover that her ship is now docked with an unknown and enormous ship. Not knowing where and just as importantly when they are, Helen and Alexsa enter the apparently deserted ship knowing that they have little air left to breathe on their own and that they have nothing to loose by investigating the other ship.

At the end of the downthetubes review of the second book, Sons Of Ares, I said that writer Richard Marazano seemed to be setting off into 2001: A Space Odyssey territory and he does, after a quick detour via Alien's derelict spaceship. Where and when they are becomes obvious to the astronauts as the plot unfolds and, like 2001, the story comes full circle without explaining all the complexities of how it managed it. Also like 2001, it doesn't need to explain everything to leave you impressed. Having reached the end, I will now take the time to reread the entire series again without the gaps of months between the books - it really is that good.

Jean-Michel Ponzio's art remains at the high standard of the previous two books - accurate, realistic and above all believable. Indeed the visual reveal on page 32 of the book left me flicking back to the beginning to figure out just how he as the artist managed not to give this important plot point away in all his pages worth of establishing shots.

The two creators are working on another series together called Genetiks which is on its second book. While at 100+ pages each these are longer than the typical Cinebook publication, we can but hope that the reaction to this series is enough for Cinebook to consider translating Genetiks into English. In the meantime if you haven't begun The Chimpanzee Complex then do so - Civilisation is an impressive conclusion to an impressive series.

There are more details of The Chimpanzee Complex on the Cinebook website.

There are more details of the original French editions (in French) on the Dargaud website.

The downthetubes review of book one, Paradox, is here and of book two, The Sons Of Ares, is here.

Sunday, 8 August 2010

It features the usual mix of madcap strips, including 10 pages of Alan Grant and Jon Haward's Tales of the Buddha, Kevin Eastman and Kevin O'Neill and Simon Bisley on S*** the Dog, Gary Erskine inking Gibson Quarter's War on Drugs, Alan Kerr's latest superb Lusi Sulfura, Alan Grant and Jim Devlin's The Dopranos, plus Alan Burrows takes his Fun Guys to the world of Alice in Wonderland.

There's some great news for fans of cracking British comics artist Ron Embleton with the announcement of an impending collection of his superb comicstrip, Wulf the Briton, from Book Palace Books - fronted by an introduction from Dave Gibbons.

Longtime fan of the strip Peter Richardson is the brains behind this exciting project, a collection of strips first published in Express Weekly.

Set largely in Roman Britain, the comic ran for three years before Express (latterly TV Express) Weekly and is considered one of the UK's finest 'classic' comic strips.

Embleton took over the strip in 1959, and the workload he was shouldered with on Wulf was formidable. In comparison to Frank Hampson, who had a studio and assistants to help meet the weekly Dan Dare deadlines, Embleton just had himself to draw, letter and paint the feature.

Embleton was, however, unfazed by such considerations and within a few months he was also writing the strip and steering it in a much more historically credible direction as well as adding an extra page to the strip.

"As a result of my weekly blog postings [about Wulf] earlier in the year I had an approach from Geoff West CEO of Book Palace Books to enquire whether I would be interested in editing a collection of all Ron Embleton's Wulf the Briton stories," Peter reveals on the Cloud 109 blog. "As this was the comic above all others that totally captured my imagination as a child and as no one has ever attempted to do this before, I jumped at the chance.

"The intervening months have been a whirlwind of Wulf activity, involving meetings with the people at Express Newspapers, talking to people who were close to Ron, seeking out material which would help shed light on the creation of this epic strip and uncovering hitherto unseen by all but a few, original Wulf boards."

Carefully restored, the collection, which will be introduced by top artist Dave Gibbons, who describes the upcoming book as "a classic UK comic art must-have", will run to 300 plus pages of art, plus all the annuals, plus any other piece of Wulf artwork generated by Ron.

"It really is a gargantuan project," says Peter.

The collected Wulf the Briton will come in two different editions: a regular edition and a very limited leather bound and slip cased edition of just 100 copies. "The slipcased edition will feature some absolutely stonking pages shot from the original artwork, much of it only recently unearthed and not having done the rounds of the collector' s circuit and in absolutely pristine condition.

"The pages will be printed at the same size the comic was published so there has been very careful work done to ensure that there is no loss of Embleton's brushwork, we want owning this book to be as pleasurable as having an entire run of the original comics but with the added convenience of being all bound together in a durable format."

"Wulf the Briton was without doubt Ron Embleton's comic masterpiece," feels Peter, talking about the strip earlier in the year. "He took over the strip - a single page cover feature on Express Weekly in 1957. As a result of Embleton's artistic input it went from being an OK'ish main feature to at least, aesthetically speaking, a rival to Frank Hampson's Dan Dare."

It's clear that Peter and everyone involved have put a lot of hours into getting this project right (and more hours to come), delivering the material in the kind of format that fans of such British classic comics material crave. We eagerly await news on a publication date.

The site downthetubes.net, which began publishing in 1999, is edited by John Freeman whose credits include editor of Doctor Who Magazine, Star Trek Magazine, Star Wars Magazine, and Marvel UK titles such as Overkill, Death's Head II, Warheads and others. He's currently editor of the upcoming Strip Magazine for Print Media Productions.

About the Writers:

• Matthew Badham has written features for Judge Dredd: The Megazine, the Forbidden Planet International blog and more

• Jeremy Briggs contributes news, reviews, interviews and historical articles on British comics. He is a guest writer on Steve Holland's UK comics history blog, Bear Alley, and has written for Comics International, TV Zone, Spaceship Away and Omnivistascope.

• David Hailwood has written comic strips for various publications, including TOXIC, Accent UK, Bulletproof and Futurequake. He also writes comedy material for TV, and regularly contributes to the Temple APA (a showcase for UK comic writers and artists).

• Andy Luke is a writer who draws: he's s created the eponymous Andy Luke's Comic Book, Gran, Absence: a comic about epilepsy, Hold the Phones, It's Alex Jones, and graphic novel, The Watch Thief. He's written about comics too, mainly for Bugpowder.com, and has been involved with the Caption comics festival in Oxford. He currently lives in Belfast with a large box of pasta and a 7ft tall cigarette, and can be found online at http://andy-luke.com and http://awriterwhodraws.com

• Ian Wheeler is a freelance writer who also edited the highly-acclaimed British comics fanzine Eagle Flies Again.